For many years gasoline pumps were mechanical devices. They did not accept payment from customers prior to allowing the customer to pump gas. In self service operations, customers would often drive away from the station without paying for gas which they had pumped into their cars.
These mechanical devices did not keep track of transaction data for individual transactions.
In order to diagnose any problems the pump may have had, a serviceman was required to actually be at the pump location.
In the electronic age pumps are made to operate on electronic systems. These electronic pumps can accept prepayment when equipped with a card and note reading facility. Transaction data is displayed to customers via liquid crystal displays similar in function and layout to the mechanical display system used in mechanical pumps. The electronic pump can keep track of transaction data for itself.
Neither the mechanical pump nor the electronic pump is very user friendly. A customer encountering the pump for the first time is often intimidated by the cold look of the solely numerical display and the separate card and note reader. Even to a veteran self service pump user, pump problems encountered during use can cause this feeling of intimidation. The provision of a long list of printed instructions does not improve the situation.
The object of the invention is to provide improved prepayment, point of sale information, display, instruction, remote system problem diagnostic, and remote problem correction capabilities.